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Anthony Stark (Earth-616)
Real Name: Anthony Edward Stark Nicknames: Tony, Shellhead, The Golden Avenger Former Aliases: Iron Knight, Hogan Potts, Spare Parts Man, Cobalt Man II Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases =Status= Occupation: Inventor, Industrialist Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record Identity: Secret Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Howard Anthony Stark (father, deceased), Maria Stark (mother, deceased), Morgan Stark (cousin), Isaac Stark (ancestor) Group Affiliation: Avengers, formerly Force Works Base of Operations: Seattle, Washington =Origin= Tony Stark was born to parents Howard and Maria Stark. During the Vietnam war, Stark was captured by the Mandarin and with a piece of shrapnel in his heart, was about to die. Constructing an iron armor that would also help with his recovery, Stark broke out of capture and journeyed back home to the United States. Place of Birth: Long Island, New York First Appearance: TALES OF SUSPENSE #39 =History= Anthony Stark, son of industrialist Howard Stark, demonstrated his mechanical aptitude and extraordinary inventive genius at a very early age, enrolling in college electrical engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 15. When he was 21, he inherited his father's business, Stark Industries, and within a few years turned it into a multimillion-dollar industry complex whose chief contracts were for weaponry and munitions for the U.S. government. Howard Stark (or one of his ancestors) worked on the Manhattan Project, encountered Uatu the Watcher with the V-Battalion, was kidnapped by the Red Skull, and worked on the Arsenal robot. Secretly, Hugh Jones caused the car accident that slew Howard and Maria Stark. According to one account, the Crimson Dynamo attacked Stark Industries, but a young Tony Stark persuaded him to defect. Stark was sent to Vietnam to supervise a field test for one of his tranistorized weapons. While he was there Stark tripped on a booby trap and a piece of shrapnel was lodged in his chest. The gravely injured Stark was taken captive by the Communist leader Wong-Chu, and was informed that within a week the shrapnel would penetrate his heart and kill him. Wong-Chu offered Stark a deal: if he built the Communist a powerful weapon, Wong-Chu would allow Stark to undergo an operation to save his life. Knowing this was a lie, Stark agreed, hoping to gain time and access to tools. Stark was given access to a small laboratory in communist territory with another captive, the renowned Oriental physicist Professor Ho Yinsen. With Yinsen acting as his assistant, Stark designed and built an electrically powered suit of armor equipped with heavy offensive weaponry. The armor also contained a pacemaker-like device which enabled Stark's heart to keep beating after the shrapnel entered it. Donning the suit, Stark connected it to its power source, an electrical generator. Lying on a table Stark was helpless until the suit was fully charged. His captor, Wong-Chu, sensed something was amiss and came to investigate with armed men. Realizing he was sacrificing his life, Professor Ho Yinsen went out to confront Wong-Chu, to give Stark the extra time he needed to charge the armored suit fully. As the Iron Man, Stark avenged Yinsen's death and scattered Wong-Chu's guerilla troops. Then, still clad in his armor, which was necessary to keep his heart beating, Stark made his way to the jungle, trying to escape communist territory. James Rhodes, a pilot in the United States Marines who was stationed in South East Asia, had been shot down in the jungle by communist rockets while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Rhodes managed to land safely and was attempting to get his helicopter air-worthy when he encountered Iron Man. After Iron Man helped Rhodes fight off an attack by communist forces, Rhodes allowed him to drain helicopter's batteries to recharge his armor. The two tracked through the jungle together, finally discovering a hidden Communist rocket base. Stealing an enemy helicopter, they destroyed the base and flew to the nearest American base. Back in the United States, Stark redesigned his chest plate, which contained a pacemaker-like device, reducing the chestplate's size and weight so he could wear it under his normal clothing. Required to wear the armor's chestplate at all times to keep his heart beating, Stark decided to put to rest of the armor to regular use as well. After redesigning the entire armored suit to match the lighter chestplate, Stark made the existence of the suit public. He concealed the suit's true origin, as well as the fact that he himself had to wear the chest plate to live. Stark made it known that he would soon manufacture the suit, which he called "the human machine," for sale for the public. Soon afterward, Stark donned one of his battle suits in order to prevent thieves from stealing parts from the other copies of it. This experience made him realize that the suit was too dangerous to be made available to the public. The next day Stark revealed what had happened to him in Southeast Asia to Joanna Nivena, his then fiancé. Together they attended a tennis match in Forest Hills, N.Y. that afternoon. Stark brought along his armor, which he was taking to a nearby laboratory for tests. The match was invaded by terrorists who threatened to kill everyone present with a bomb. Joanna urged Stark to don the armor to stop the terrorists. Stark did so, captured the terrorists and saved the spectators by throwing himself atop the bomb. Iron Man thus publicly became a hero, and Stark had a new sense of purpose, having decided to combat evildoers as Iron Man. Wishing to retain some degree of anonymity, Stark established the fiction that Iron Man was his paid bodyguard wearing a suit of armor that he had invented. Only his most trusted aides learned Stark and Iron Man were one and the same. At first Stark used his Iron Man identity only to combat spies and criminals who threatened Stark industries. Later, he expanded the scope of his alter-ego's activities to battle any force or person who threatened the security of America or the world. Stark was instrumental in the organization and armament of the original world intelligence and law-enforcement agency known as SHIELD. As Iron Man, he became a founding member of the team of super-human champions known as the Avengers. Stark donated his Manhattan mansion to the Avengers for their exclusive use. Over the years Stark constantly refined and modified the design of his armor. From a bulky, transistorized Iron suit, Iron man eventually built a relatively lightweight, integrated-circuit, magnetically-polarized suit with more human-looking articulated musculature. Stark's extraordinary genius at theoretical mechanics has enabled him keep his suit of armor state of the art. Stark eventually underwent heart transplant surgery so that he was no longer obligated to wear his metallic chest plate. For moral reasons, Stark eventually decided to no longer manufacture armaments and devoted his company to other areas of technology. In recent years Tony Stark's greatest nemesis has been alcoholism. As a wealthy socialite, alcohol had been a constant part of his life. When his company, which had changed its name from Stark Industries to Stark international, was threatened with the takeover at the same time he was experiencing oppressive personal problems, Stark began to abuse alcohol. Although he managed to recover quickly from his first serious bout, the compulsion to drink remained a constant temptation. The second time he succumbed to alcoholism, due to even more devastating personal problems than the first time, Tony Stark went on a several month binge during which he was cheated out of Stark international, had all Iron Man suits destroyed (except one), lost the leases on his various apartments, and had his personal assets frozen so that he could not touch his fortune. All of this was the result of the machinations of the mysterious European entrepreneur Obadiah Stane, who took over Stark's company, renaming it Stane International. During this time, Stark's friend James Rhodes, who had gone to work for Stark after leaving the military, assumed custody of the Iron Man armor and operated as Iron Man in his stead. When Stark finally regained his sobriety, he joined with Rhodes and two of his friends, Worley Irwin (late of Stark international) and his sister Clytemnestra Irwin of Richmond Enterprises, to set up a new electronics firm in Californian named Circuits Maximus. In its brief existence, Circuits Maximus became a prestigious and successful firm. While the armor was in his custody, James Rhodes became increasingly enamored of being Iron Man and, upon Stark's return to sobriety, feared that Stark would ask for it back. However, the severe headaches caused by the fact that the cybernetic helmet had never been properly adjusted to Rhodes' brain patterns, began to cloud Rhodes' thinking. As result Rhodes began to manifest hostility toward Stark. As work therapy Stark constructed a simple suit of armor based on his original design with no intention of donning it until he felt in control of his alcoholism. When Rhodes began acting irrationally, however, Stark felt obligated to put on this crude suit of armor to prevent Rhodes from doing harm. Stark managed to subdue Rhodes and made necessary recalibrations on the cybernetics. For a brief time Stark and Rhodes used their respective suits of armor as Iron Men, although Stark did so reluctantly. At the suggestion of the West Coast Avengers chairman, Hawkeye, Stark designed and built his most sophisticated armor to date, presumably so that the Avengers could find someone to wear the suit and bolster the team's strength. However, soon after completion, Obadiah Stane, alarmed at Stark's steps toward recovery, bombed Circuits Maximus injuring Rhodes and killing Morley Erwin. Desiring vengeance, Stark donned the untested new armor and sought out Stane. Stane himself put on a suit his engineers had built using Stark's plans, and met Iron Man in battle as the Iron Monger. Losing the battle against Stark, Stane committed suicide. Stark decided that although one is never truly cured of alcoholism, he could also not deny the responsibility of being Iron Man. He resumed his career as Iron Man and joined the New West Coast division of the Avengers. Stark also managed to reclaim control of his fortune, although he decided not to claim ownership of the company formerly known as Stark international. Rather, he founded a new technological design and manufacturing company, Stark Enterprises, based in Silicon Valley in Southern California. Stark Enterprises quickly became a highly successful and innovative company. Stark learned that an industrialist, calling himself Spymaster, had stolen the plans for the many secret technological innovations found in the Iron Man armor. Spymaster had then turned these plans over to Stark's most powerful and antagonistic business rival, Justin Hammer, who, in turn, had made them available to many criminals. These criminals had then incorporated the stolen technological innovations into their own armored battle suits. Outraged that his inventions were being used for criminal activity, and even for killing, Stark determined to deprive these criminals of his secrets. He planted a computer virus in Hammer's computer system that would wipe out all traces of the plans for Stark's Iron Man technology. As Iron Man, Stark sought out and caught many criminals and others (such as the United States government's Guardsmen) who wore battle suits utilizing his technology. He implanted devices called 'negator packs' on their armor to fuse the circuits, rendering the suit useless. With the computer records of the plans for his technology gone, presumably it could not be used in reconstructing the suits. Iron Man accidentally killed the second Titanium Man (also known as the Gremlin) in the course of these "Armor Wars." The United States government branded Iron Man an outlaw as a result of these and other vigilante actions, and Stark publicly claimed that he had fired Iron Man in displeasure over his illegal activity. Shortly afterward, Iron Man was apparently destroyed in combat with government forces. In fact, however, Stark had survived. He created an even more sophisticated armored battle suit to wear as Iron Man using technology far more advanced than that which Spymaster had stolen from him. Stark continued to go into action as Iron Man, but he publicly claimed that the previous Iron Man was dead and that another employee of his whose identity is being kept secret was now wearing the armored suit. Later, Stark was shot by Kathleen Dare, a former lover of his with an unstable mind. The gunfire severely injured Starks spine and it appeared he could be crippled for the rest of his life, unable to walk. He could, however, still function normally within his Iron Man armor. A microchip device was later implanted in Stark's spine that enabled him to walk and move normally once again. However, this 'biochip' was problematic and further degenerative nerve damage occurred. He temporarily had to be placed in cryo-stasis, with Jim Rhodes taking his place as CEO. Stark eventually recovered with intensive rehabilitation. Stark quarreled with War Machine over several good-intentioned but wrong decisions Jim made as CEO of SE (such as selling off nuclear assets to a dummy company secretly operated by AIM), as well as his actions in Imaya. Rhodes was still angry that Stark had lied to him about the nerve damage. The two briefly clashed, but have since become friends again. Stark did a number of horrible acts while under the influence of Immortus and was temporarily replaced by a younger version of himself. This was corrected when he and the other heroes who sacrificed themselves against Onslaught were brought back by Franklin Richards. Furthermore, Iron man subjected himself to judgement by his fellow Avengers and was exonerated. Since then he has developed a number of armors, had his heart and back reinjured, faced new and old enemies, met new and old flames, dealt with an armor gaining sentience, lost and regained his company as well as starting new ones, acted as Secretary of Defense, and now currently has restarted the Avengers. =Characteristics= Height: 6'1" Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg) Eyes: Blue Hair: Black Unusual Features: No unusual features =Powers= Strength Level: Without his armor Tony Stark possesses the normal strength of a normal human man his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. The special armor magnifies Stark's strength to superhuman levels, enabling him to lift (press) roughly 85 tons. Known Powers: No known powers. Known Abilities: Tony Stark is an extraordinary genius who is responsible for numerous major discoveries, inventions, and other achievements in various areas of technology. His inventions include, but are not limited to, nano-technology capable of releasing a affected person from Brood mind-control, and a time-machine. Stark is a accomplished computer programmer, most notably coding the system needed to control his own human body via a neural-net in his helmet. This feat required him to write millions of lines of computer code in a few seconds. Moreover, he needed to do this flawlessly or he would have died. =Miscellaneous= Equipment: Iron Man wears a sophisticated suit of body armor containing various offensive weaponry. Aside from his current armor he is known to have several mission-specific armors. Transportation: When not traveling in his armor or using a Quinjet with fellow Avengers, Stark has a number of vehicles, some of which have been modified. Weapons: No known weapons. =Notes= *The identity of Iron Man was publicly revealed when Tony donned half the suit to save a dog from being run over. This was then later covered up by Stark claiming to have given up the suit with someone else now inside. ---- Related Articles: *War Machine ---- External Links: ---- References: * Marvel Directory ---- Return to Character Selection ----